


Through Thick and Thin

by Crows_Imagine



Series: Soulmate Mark AU [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 18:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20532260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crows_Imagine/pseuds/Crows_Imagine
Summary: Kindaichi loves the idea of soulmates and can't wait to meet his. Kunimi is the opposite.





	Through Thick and Thin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yellowwclouds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellowwclouds/gifts).

> This is part of an art/fic trade with one of my friends, Jules! I hope you enjoy, Jules!!! :D This was a lot of fun!!!
> 
> https://kunimiiakiraa.tumblr.com/
> 
> https://yellowwclouds.tumblr.com/
> 
> Go follow Jules!

Ever since he was a little kid, Yuutaro has been excited to meet his soulmate. Many times, he’d daze off during class as he pictured how he and his soulmate first meet. Would it be when he was a kid still? Maybe college? What do they look like? Where would they meet?

And does their soulmate mark before the flash make more sense than his?

He supposes the marks make sense after they meet but for now, he has a thick curvy line across his shoulder blade.

Somehow, his closest friends never had the same enthusiasm for soulmates. He met Kunimi in elementary school and he never cared much. A classmate asked Kunimi to pass her the pink crayon. Usually soulmates are discovered in high school or later years, but there are rare times when children as young as toddlers meet their soulmates. This classmate met her soulmate at the beginning of the year during recess, her soulmate being another young girl in the class down the hall from her and Yuutaro’s.

“Can you pass me that crayon over there?” she asks. Kunimi does so, not bothering to look up from his own drawing. Yuutaro tried to figure out what Kunimi’s drawing was, but without success. Is it a dog or perhaps a weird cloud? He decides not to ask about it and focuses on their classmate.

“What are you drawing?” he curiously asks, peering over at her paper.

The girl grins. “A heart for my soulmate! It’s our soulmate mark!” She raises her sleeve to show her elbow, where a bright pink heart shines against her skin. Yuutaro remembers vaguely the classmate’s mark before the flash was a limp, sky-blue heart.

“I can’t wait to meet my soulmate,” Yuutaro sighs.

“Why?” Kunimi asks.

The girl and Yuutaro stare at Kunimi, surprised by his words.

“What do you mean?” Yuutaro says. “You don’t want to know who your soulmate is? Who you’re going to spend the rest of your life with?”

“Soulmates doesn’t mean marriage or forever,” Kunimi says. “Sometimes they end up unhappy.”

“That doesn’t mean it has to happen to you,” the girl insists.

“You don’t choose whether it happens to you,” Kunimi responds. “I’d rather not get my hopes up in case the worst situation occurs.”

“But you should have faith,” Yuutaro tries.

Kunimi shrugs and continues coloring in his weird dog-cloud. “I guess.”

The conversation ceases. Yuutaro learns from this instances and others that Kunimi cannot be persuaded otherwise in his soulmate thinking. Yuutaro stops trying to convince Kunimi, but secretly hopes he’ll change his ways.

~~

Middle school is a hard time for the two of them. Yuutaro is relieved they chose the same middle school, as he’s certain without Kunimi by his side, everything would be much more difficult.

After playing volleyball in elementary school, Yuutaro successfully gets Kunimi to join the volleyball team with him. They have great senpai, especially Iwaizumi, who always places their captain, Oikawa, back in his rightful spot. Especially when he overworks himself.

“I want to be like Iwaizumi-senpai when I’m older,” Yuutaro declares one day as they walk back home. Kunimi stays a few steps behind, playing some game on his phone. “Why is that?”

“Because he’s so cool!” Yuutaro answers, shaking his head a little. He lifts the back of his sleeveless tee. They practiced outside today because the A/C was broken, yet the weather outside wasn’t much better. He’s dripping in sweat. “Who wouldn’t want to be like him?”

“I wouldn’t,” Kunimi says and judging by a gravely sound, he kicks a rock with his shoe. “I don’t want to deal with Oikawa-san all the time. He gets annoying when he’s in a mood.”

“I think he’s like that sometimes because of Kageyama,” Yuutaro muses. He may not be the most skilled or game-smart player, but anyone can sense the dynamic going on between the team’s best setters. Aside from the first year one himself.

“Oikawa-san can be too insecure sometimes,” Kunimi mutters.

Yuutaro scratches his shoulder blade. “Yeah. It’s weird seeing him like that.”

Kunimi pauses, briefly stopping his walking. “Yeah… weird.”

~~

The second year of middle school is okay. The team is quite good, but can’t sync up on the best level yet. Kageyama easily gets frustrated and soon the rest of the team is following. Yuutaro tries to ease tensions, but many players are running out of patience. He suggests team bonding outside of the court and while it’s cordial at best, that doesn’t seem to help in the long run.

Third year is the worst yet. The team is pretty much Kageyama versus everyone else. Yuutaro finds it harder and harder to defend Kageyama and his actions. He’s angry himself. Why is he acting like this? Why not trust his teammates more? One time Yuutaro overheard Kageyama say he wish he could play the game all by himself one time. He thinks that’s when he truly lost faith in Kageyama.

No matter how awful volleyball got that year, he’s relieved that Kunimi never left his side. Even though he kept making remarks he’d quit volleyball to avoid Kageyama and his reign, Kunimi never left Yuutaro by himself.

Even now Kunimi doesn’t leave his side. They both applied to Seijoh and were accepted, so high school together is another adventure waiting to happen. A couple of their senpai, including Iwaizumi and Oikawa, are on the volleyball team. It’ll be nice to have familiar faces.

However, there’s time before school starting, and Yuutaro is determined to make the best of it.

If Kunimi will agree. Yuutaro is at Kunimi’s house, aka his second home, and trying to get his friend outside.

“Come on!” he pleads, turning on his side. He lays on top of Kunimi’s bed, while Kunimi is sprawled like a starfish over his bean bag chair, stomach down. “Let’s go to the pool or something!”

“You know I don’t like taking my shirt off,” Kunimi answers, voice muffled by the bean bag. It’s true. Kunimi would even go into a stall to change into volleyball clothes for practice.

“There are such things as swim shirts,” Yuutaro points out.

Kunimi is silent for a few minutes. He suspects he’s fallen asleep, but slowly, Kunimi sits up.

“Alright, fine. We can go to the pool. I won’t wear a swim shirt.”

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Yuutaro says. Maybe he can’t buy a swim shirt soon. “What about going to a museum?”

Kunimi wrinkles his nose. “Boring. But it’s okay. I don’t need a swim shirt. I don’t have to hide anything anymore.” He hesitates, but pulls off his shirt.

Yuutaro would blush at the sight except his attention is immediately drawn to a mark across Kunimi’s chest. A thin, curvy line. Just like Yuutaro’s, the exact same except in thickness.

Just like Yuutaro’s…

“That’s your soulmate mark,” he whispers.

Kunimi tosses his shirt on the ground. “Yeah. I kept avoiding changing with anyone seeing it. I know the whole team saw yours, it’s on your shoulder. I didn’t see it until middle school.” He snorts. “Never hyped up the soulmate marks as you know, so I never asked to see yours. I spotted it one day when we were walking home from practice. I knew you were my soulmate. And it terrified me.”

Yuutaro’s head spins from all this new information. Kunimi is his best friend. And now soulmate?

“Why did it terrify you?” he quietly asks, not able to meet Kunimi’s eyes.

“Because it’s me,” Kunimi simply says. “Why would you want to be soulmates with me?”

Yuutaro’s head shoots straight up. “Excuse me?”

“What?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Yuutaro won’t lie and say he hasn’t though of Kunimi in ‘more than a friend way’ but with his soulmate ideals, he never allowed himself to dwell deep. Better to keep from drowning by staying in the shallow end. Or kiddy pool.

“Why wouldn’t you want?”

“Why wouldn’t I want to be soulmates with you?” Yuutaro gets off the bed and crawls to Kunimi. “You know me better than anyone else. You’re always the one that has been there for me. Through thick and thin.” He glances at Kunimi’s chest and softly laughs. “I guess that’s what the marks mean.” He slips off his shirt as well.

“Are we testing this?”

“If we don’t, then we’ll never see our true marks,” Yuutaro says, grinning. He turns to the side so he’s able to see Kunimi’s mark and vice-versa. Kunimi stares at the ground, taking in a deep breath before moving his gaze above. A bright flash clouds the room and in the soulmate marks’ places is a new mark, a bundle of lines alternating thickness, from thin as a hair to thick as multiple centimeters.

“It’s confirmed,” Kunimi says. “You’re my soulmate—” he’s cut off by a loud grunt from himself as Yuutaro hugs him tightly. “What’s that for?”

“Why do you question everything?” he says, laughing as his eyes water.

Kunimi returns the hug. “I always thought I would disappoint you,” he admits. “Though you would want someone like Iwaizumi-san. You had a crush on him.”

“What?” Yuutaro pulls back enough to see Kunimi’s face. “I admired him and yeah, he’s attractive, but he’s not you. He’ll never be you.” He rests his head against Kunimi’s shoulder. “So. you knew we were soulmates for three years?”

“I’m sorry,” Kunimi murmurs. “I kept trying to tell you sooner, but each time I’d get choked up. I didn’t want to lose you as a friend. We already lost Kageyama, I didn’t want you to lose me and more selfishly, I didn’t want to lose you.”

“You’re going to have to try harder to lose me, Akira,” Yuutaro promises. “Have more confidence in yourself, and in me! I will never leave you.”

Kunimi sniffles.

“Are you crying?”

“Shut up,” Kunimi answers, sniffling louder.

Yuutaro strings his fingers through Kunimi’s hair. “You’ll have a lifetime to say that to me.”

“Better get used to it,” Kunimi says, words without bite.

Yuutaro smiles.


End file.
